My First Vacation in 13 years!! (No, really)! *LOTS of Pictures!!!*

[Rainforest_Elf]

I...don't know really how to start this thing...

Hi.

My name is Rachel. I've been a disney fan since birth. My mother programmed me that way. I've been to disneyland once before, when I was 10, I believe. I don't remember a whole lot of it, so I knew I would document the crap out of this trip. In total, I came home with 744 pictures. After deleting and editing, I'm now down to about 600 or so. I have no idea how many I'll actually be posting in this trip report, but you'll get to see a lot of them. I promise.

To start you off, here's a picture of the three of us who went on this trip. As I already said, my name is Rachel. I'm the girl in the middle, obviously. To the left of me is my best friend, Matt, and to the right is our very good friend Tim.


We all met at work, which is a call center for an entertainment company. Tim no longer works there, so it's just Matt and I now, but we've been great friends ever since we met a year ago.

Our trip started on Monday, October 6th and lasted until Saturday, October 11th. Monday was reserved for travel. I was a first time flier and I had never really been to an airport before, so I was thankful to have my seasoned veterans with me. I had been on a tiny little 4 seater airplane before, which was fun and frightening, but the big airplanes really freaked me out!! We got to PDX pretty early and checked in and got ready to go. Our flight actually left 20 minutes early because everyone was good to go! So that was awesome.


The boys were trying to freak me out because I had never been on a plane before.

Lucky me, I got the window seat.

It was all laughs and giggles until the engine started up...

Right as we took off I demanded to hold Tim's hand since he was seated next to me. My little heart was racing crazy fast. The sound of the engine starting up really just upset me. Once it was over I calmed down, but there was some geninue fear in me for awhile.

We flew into SNA, otherwise known as Orange County, or John Wayne Airport! It was so tiny compared to PDX but it was easy to navigate and I liked it a lot. I especially loved the statue of the cowboy himself in the main entryway.


Matty and I tried our best at dueling with our guns. I think these are two of my favorite pictures from the whole trip



Disneyland Express was so cute! I was glad we planned ahead and had already paid and just had to show the voucher to the woman in the express booth. We boarded the bus and the whole trip, including dropping several people off, took a maximum of 20 minutes. It was amazing.


Matt really liked it, too. He used his Iphone to show our location and how far we were from our hotel.

As we pulled up onto Magic Way Matt got really excited:


More to come later!!!

 

[Sherry E]

I am not able to see any of your photos! I don't know if it is just my stupid computer? Can you see your images when you exit out of the thread and then come back into it to look at your post?



Edit: I can see photos now! Evil red X's of doom gone forever!

 

[wendylady36]

So far it looks like you had a great trip!

I love all your pictures so far! I can't wait to read/see more.

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

I am not able to see any of your photos! I don't know if it is just my stupid computer? Can you see your images when you exit out of the thread and then come back into it to look at your post?

Hi Sherry! I was linking them incorrectly, I hope they're fixed now! I was getting the evil red X's of doom.

 

[Sherry E]

Hi Sherry! I was linking them incorrectly, I hope they're fixed now! I was getting the evil red X's of doom.

That is hilarious - the evil red X's of doom have been obliterated! I can see photos now!!

 

[davidsprincess]

Sounds great so far. Love all the pics!

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

And the story continues!!!

The lobby for the DLH was dark, but cute. I thought it was adorable how Goofy was there helping some little kid with his luggage. It set the mood for our Disney trip!

The room was less than stellar, though. It was small, and it was pretty hot when we entered. Not really sure why, but we fiddled with the thermostat right away.

Although the first thing Tim did was turn on the TV and found a football game. Ayup.

The room was clean, but SMALL. And the view was ridiculous. It was of the parking lot. Charming, eh?

So, the power went off in the middle of the night ON PURPOSE, they were resetting it, which they failed to notify us about. So it’s a damn good thing we didn’t use the alarm clock in the hotel room, because we would have missed our early entry into the parks. Also, since the room reset… so did the heat in the room. I think in the middle of the night we all kicked off the covers off our bed, it was so gross and hot in there that first night even though we DID turn down the heat once we entered the room. Thank goodness it stuck at 65 degrees after that. We like to bundle up in our covers, not sleep on top of them, thank you very much!

Tim can fall asleep anywhere. We left him alone for 5 minutes and he was OUT. Snoring.

Once we had settled and unpacked and just relaxed a bit, we headed into downtown Disney.

I was very impressed with Department 56 and ended up spending well over $150 there. I bought my first house for my Christmas village while on vacation. I had to get it sent home, and it hasn’t reached me yet, but it’ll be a treasured keepsake.

This was over by an ATM which I think was tucked into a corner near Wetzel’s pretzels. There was no one around back there and I thought I would be naughty and go where only cast members were allowed!!!

We ate dinner at the rainforest café. We were seated right next to the bathroom on the top floor, so inconsiderate people kept bumping my chair. We were also right in between the noisy gorillas and the elephants. Still though, I enjoyed it, although the pizza I got was a little bit weird.

Matt was really unimpressed by this pickle. I think it offended him.

I think I may have reached my picture quota for this post, so I'll leave it at that for now! Hope I'm not being too talkative

 

[TiggerNZ]

keep going please - I just love hearing about and seeing peoples trips - looks good so far, shame about the heat in the room though.

Please do share more!

 

[wendylady36]

I LOVE your report so far! The pictures are all so great.

Sorry about your parking lot view room.

 

[Sherry E]

Rainforest, please keep going! You see how long MY Trip Report is! I love hearing all the details of people's trips, so you can't write/explain too much for my liking!!!

By the way, I am SO glad you snapped a little picture of the Halloween village in Dept. 56! I loved it! I fell in love with that whole display when I was there and was snapping photos (none of which have been developed yet) in the store like crazy! I love that whole Halloween amusement park theme with the little spooky people riding in the spinning pumpkins and then the ferris wheel and the haunted houses! It was spectacular. My friend and I just stood there staring at it, trying to absorb every detail. I highly recommend to anyone to visit Dept. 56 to see it before Halloween is over!

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

By the way, I am SO glad you snapped a little picture of the Halloween village in Dept. 56! I loved it! I fell in love with that whole display when I was there and was snapping photos (none of which have been developed yet) in the store like crazy! I love that whole Halloween amusement park theme with the little spooky people riding in the spinning pumpkins and then the ferris wheel and the haunted houses! It was spectacular. My friend and I just stood there staring at it, trying to absorb every detail. I highly recommend to anyone to visit Dept. 56 to see it before Halloween is over!

I loved the little halloween village too, i thought it looked better than some of the christmas ones! My mother is a halloween fantatic so when she saw that picture she was glad there isn't a department 56 anywhere near us, because she WANTED that village like no ones buisness! Lol.

I'm glad y'all are enjoying my TR so far! My favorite trip reports to read on these boards are the ones with TONS of details and pictures. I may not know the people in the images, but i feel like I get to know them through the photographs, which is why I feel like sharing so many of mine!

 

[disneydreamertoo]

Loving the details and loads of pictures! You have fun friends!

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

Ugh, so. I went out just now to go buy pizza which is my Monday night ritual, and while I was stopped at a red light, someone rear ended me. I've never been in an accident, I don't speed, never got a ticket... I'm a very safe driver, a defensive driver, when I need to be. But meh! I can't believe this happened to me. Sorry for the whinge but I wanted to get that out!

I knew I had to do something to brighten my evening, so here's a bit more of my trip report.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and spent some time near the DLH convention center hallway where they have a bunch of pictures of Walt building the park, and also famous people who had visited. I thought it was charming.

We went to bed pretty early that night, around 10pm so we could get up for our magic morning at 9am.

We later decided that was way too much sleep. Haha.

In case you were wondering, ladies (and maybe gentlemen), he's a boxer-breif kinda man.

Matt really wanted to show me his undies. I don’t even have underwear that is that pretty and colorful. I was jealous. He was pleased.

I think here we were in the queue to get our bags checked. It was around 8:15am and it was already disgustingly hot. I wore my hair down for about 10 minutes on the way from the hotel. Then in downtown Disney I had really just had enough and put it up in a gross pony tail to get it off my neck. I was so thankful for SPF 70 Sunblock. The boys mocked me, but it literally saved me, I would have been burnt to a crisp without that stuff.

Although as usual, Matt has a big smile on his face. Not a lot fazes this man, including the nasty heat. Which is why I adore him, he's the most positive person I know!

And boy oh boy was he ready to GO! He was practically running to the gate after I got my purse checked for bombs and blades.

From reading these boards and various planning guides, we knew at minimum, we had to be in line at least 30 minutes before park opening. Well, everyone else had the same idea. Even still, at gate 13 we were maybe 10-15 parties back, so it didn’t take long to get is in at all. It was the rope drop that was crazy….

Believe it or not, this is how many people were lined up for the early entry rope drop. Based on other pictures I've seen, this is a LOT of freaking people!!!

I was hoping someone would take pitty on us and take a picture of the three of us, but we instead settled for Tim's arm outstretched with my camera in hand. This is right before the rope drop.

Once they let us through the rope drop we booked it over to Peter Pan's flight. It was funny listening to people talk in the lineup as we were waiting to get scanned in. Some little boy complained to his mother, “See mom? We got here too late, now everyone’s going to head over to Peter Pan’s flight and the line is going to be crazy!” I couldn’t help but laugh because that’s exactly where we were headed.

We only had to wait about 5 minutes to get on. We were kinda worried since the boats are pretty small that the three of us fit on one, but we did it!

Then, it was time for Mr. Toad and his crazy driving skills!

He also cleary has a taste for manflesh:

Ready...

Set...

GO!!!!!!

Think that'll make me reach my picture limit for this post, so when I return, it's MAD TEACUP TIME!!

Phew, I do feel better now that I've done that

 

[bumbershoot]

Looks like fun!

Those are some colorful boxer briefs, most definitely. I love boxer briefs.

How is that pickle at RFC seeming to stand up?



(that was a strange combo of question/comment)

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

How is that pickle at RFC seeming to stand up?

Haha, I think there was a really long skewer through it then going into his burger.

 

[weslovesauntmeg]

Love you TR so far..I love all the pics so don't hold back..can't wait to hear more!!

 

[Sherry E]

Keep going! I haven't heard and seen enough yet! More details and more pictures, please!!!

Oh, and yes, you are right - the Halloween village/carnival in Dept. 56 is better than the Christmas one, I think, because it is a little more unique. You often see Christmas village scenes, and while I love them, the Halloween carnival village idea is not something you see every year! I had forgotten about the pumpkin snowman until your photo reminded me! He was one of my favorites in addition to the spinning pumpkins!!!

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

right on! Let me continue the story of our first day in the parks!

We did the typical stuff in fantasyland first because it was magic morning. Mr. Toad, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and then...the teacups. Oh my, I love the teapcups.

I know I look rather pained here, but really, Matt just makes me laugh a lot.

We had a pretty minimal wait for the teacups. We watched one cycle go through then it was our turn.

Here's a nice crotch shot for ya.

Once we got going, it was SUPER fun. I don't remember the teacups being quite this awesome as a child.

The boys were spinning the wheel so fast I was laughing uncontrollably.


I was laughing so hard I was CRYING. And of course, I couldnt walk straight once we got off those things.

I think after that we stumbled over to Space Mountain. I know, I'm naughty, I took a picture of the screen.

I had never been on it before, because when I went 13 years ago it was down for repairs. I LOVED it. I would have ridden it many more times but Tim doesn't like roller coasters in the dark, so this was our one and only ride on space mountain.

What was annoying about Space Mountain was the set up to the line itself. Id like to talk to the moron who decided to put asphalt on the top of the queue for that ride. At 10 in the morning, the California sun and heat had made the line so unbearable I was ready to snap. It reached a high of 102 that day, so standing in the line for that ride, at least on the outside of the queue, was pretty painful

I especially loved the people cutting in line by going THROUGH this brilliantly hot courtyard instead of going around it like the queue is meant to. Had I run into those people again, I would have had words for them. Thankfully this was the only instance of line cutting I saw my whole trip, so that was good.

After Space Mountain we were kinda wandering without a purpose, we didnt really have game plan since we had done everything we wanted to get out of the way. We were going to head to pirates, but decided to do breakfast first. On the way there, we ran into these fine gentlemen:

The one on the left walked over to me right after I snapped this photo and grabbed my smart water and said what be ye drinkin? or something like that and I told him water, and he wanted to know why I wasnt drinking rum. Water is to be bathed with, not for drinkin, apparently. He was a hoot, I wish I had gotten a picture WITH him, not just of him.

Breakfast was delicious. As the menu shows, we ate at the Riverbelle Terrace on a whim. Mostly because it was close by.

I got a steamboat. The eggs were kinda weird, maybe a little bit cold? But I ate that entire plate. YUM.
I think this is another steamboat but with bacon.

Tim got the Mark Twain! Not very fitting since HE NEVER LET ME GO ON THE MARK TWAIN RIVERBOAT since it didn't have any big drops

So, while we were eating breakfast inside the diner, I heard some man with a stroller talking about disboards. I made eye contact and smiled at him right as he mentioned disboards but I was way too shy to say HI IM RAINFOREST ELF from DISBOARDS!! So, dude with your family at 10:30am on 10/7/08, that was me.

 

[TXAng]

Great TR so far! Loving all the photos.

Which Christmas village house did you get - the one in the picture? My stepmother has a GINORMOUS D56 village. It takes her 3 or 4 days to get it all set up every year.

Are you ok after getting rear-ended?

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

This is a picture of our feet (and my belly). Totally accidental.

Im a semi-professional photographer but I brought a totally crappy (Id consider it throw away) Canon Powershot A470 with me. It did its job, but I missed my Nikon D80 and my fancy lenses. So I found these pictures which I forgot I was even taking, to be VERY amusing. I took several accidental shots. Including the crotch shot featured in the last post.

So we rode pirates, which was uneventful, but relaxing.

The line said it was 20 minutes but in actuality it was 5 minutes.

A crappy picture of the Blue Bayou before they opened for lunch. This is what it looks like from the ride! Coming up later will be what the place looks like from the actual inside!

New Orleans square is my favorite place inside Disneyland, and this little courtyard is awesome as well. Really, it's so charming

I'm not sure what Matty was fussing over in this picture.


Went over to ride Winnie The Pooh, much to Tims chagrin. I don't think he wanted to go on that kiddy ride, but I found it amusing.

I was upset Matt wasnt happy to get his picture taken. Pouting works really well apparently because he perked right up for the next snapshot.

Ohhhh Splash Mountain. How I fear you. When I was a kid I went on Splash Mountain once, and I never went on it again. Why? I thought it was insane that there were no seat belts and the bars that you grip onto were metal and of course, got wet and slippery making it impossible to hang onto.

Now this may have been in my imagination, however I swear that on that ride, as a 10 year old girl, I was being lifted up out of my seat on that ride on the big drop. It was enough to scare me into never going on that ride again because I thought it was going to fly out! REALLY! So on this return trip, I made it quite known to my boys that I may not be able to handle Splash Mountain.

The boys kept insisting it wasn't a big deal and I was going to think it was dumb. For them, I would brave that ride again. But not quite yet, that'll come later in this trip report.

Here's a picture of Matt doing his poohbear impression! He loves honey! What's funny is that when I was taking this picture, we kept getting weird looks from people walking by. I mean, honestly, what do you think that thing is there for? FOR PICTURE TAKING!!!

I really wanted one of those candy apples, but what a freaking mess they would be.

Look at the getup on this chick. Poor lady. What an outfit to have to wear to work every day.


Tigger tails. Lemme tell ya, I was looking forward to those things. I had about two delicious bites and I was done. Theyre so rich. We totally should have shared, I threw mine away after only two bites, and I think Matt did too. I'm also not a real big fan of marshmellows, so that was kinda stupid on my part.

Oooh Haunted Mansion. I love you. But the experience on this ride was very odd. I love the decorations on the outside.

So the CM who was manning the entrance was one rude dude. We noticed there was FP line but for the life of us, we couldn't find the booth, so we said screw it and we went into the line without one. But we figured we would at least ask for next time. Now, Matt is a very polite gentleman, he's very old fashioned and just in general, a nice guy. So he went up to the cast member and said "excuse me sir, if we wanted to get fastpasses...." and the cast member wouldn't even let him finish before BARKING "around the corner and to the left!!!" and causing Matt to scurry away. This really pissed me off so I made sure to loudly comment in the rude CM's direction that "Gee, think the Disney magic is missing from YOUR day, sir?" he wouldn't even look over in my direction so we continued on in the queue, but honestly, what the crap is wrong with you? It's a simple, polite question. Get over yourself, it's your job to be there, and if 5 people in a row ask you where the bathroom is or whatever, you answer it the same way the first person did. /rant off

We weren't really being very smart about the order in which we did things. After the very strange Haunted Mansion ride (not a fan of the overlay. You want Nightmare before christmas? give it it's own ride, thank you!) we headed over to, what I accidently called "Big Rocky Mountain Thunder Railroad"

Yes. I actually called it that. In case you can't tell, we were on our way to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We were starting to run out of water at this point. It was mid-day, and it was hot.

I didn't get a ride buddy for this one. And ohmygosh, I was being slid around from side to side on every turn. I will never ride that one alone again, you just move about way too much!!!

We thought it was funny there was a little advertisement from Kodak saying it was a kodak moment in front of the mountain. These were our best attempts.

I think we grabbed fast passes after that for Splash Mountain and headed over to Adventure Land, and I'll leave you at the midday mark for now, since this post is getting longer by the second!